BANFF - A group of Banff property owners is mounting a challenge to Parks Canada's "need to reside" law, which they say is unconstitutional and hurts the market value of their homes.

The residency law, in place for decades, stipulates that no one can own a residence in Banff unless they have a legitimate need to be there, such as employment. The rules, introduced during the 1960s, were designed to keep the national park town from become an exclusive colony for the wealthy.

But Canada is also a country in which it is a very serious offence for a farmer to sell butter or eggs without permission or for a radio station to play the songs its listeners most want to hear. Canada is a country in which the governments decide which medical treatments will be provided, and where, and when -- and in which it is again a serious offence for a doctor to provide treatments other than those offered by the state.

It's illegal for a wheat farmer to sell his wheat to the highest bidder, for a landlord in Toronto and other major cities to charge the market price for his apartments, or (in many provinces) for anyone other than the government to sell liquor or wine, and illegal for American Airlines to fly passengers from Toronto to Vancouver.

In the words of a provincial tax official: "We believe this is the only jurisdiction in B.C. where the people do not have the right to reside on their own property." In a concluding article in our Strong and Free series, Elizabeth Nickson examines what happens when collective rights override individual property rights.

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BRITISH COLUMBIA - It is a sunny autumn afternoon and some members of the Coalition of Concerned Citizens on Galiano have gathered in a large kitchen overlooking Georgia Strait. They refer to themselves, only partly in jest, as "The Northern Alliance,"